


Endless Ambition

by ironxprince



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Female Peter Parker, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Protective Harley Keener, Protective Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:40:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25976086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ironxprince/pseuds/ironxprince
Summary: Penny Parker gets injured in a disaster during patrol and is laid up with a cast. Tony helps her heal, and Harley keeps her company.
Relationships: Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 22
Kudos: 251
Collections: The Best Peter Parker Fluff Fics





	Endless Ambition

**Author's Note:**

  * For [milleniumrex](https://archiveofourown.org/users/milleniumrex/gifts).



Penny changes course mid-swing the moment she’s notified of a potential building collapse and lets Karen guide her to the site of a pile of scaffolding that’s soon to be a building. Or, it  _ was _ .

Now, though, the support beams are crumbling, the structure is wobbling, and the workers are still inside.

Spider-Woman flies into action, hurrying straight for the support that’s cracking under the pressure. She tries to push it up, just long enough for the workers to get away safely, or to bear the weight of the structure on her own, but the damage has already been done. One weak link has set off a chain reaction of destruction in the building.

The structure is coming down.

It’s irrefutable, debris falling, materials shattering. Penny tasks herself with saving the workers; it’s all she can do. She races through the structure, Karen supplying her with safe routes on her HUD. Penny flies across the haphazardly placed boards, careful of where she steps, fighting the urge to fire a web to help her get around faster. Any extra pressure on the structure will send it down faster, and Penny’s pressed for time as it is.

She finds the workers that are stuck, lowering them to the ground. She herds the rest out of the nearest exits and urges them to get as far away as possible as her vision grows restricted, dust beginning to rise from the falling debris. Her suit tries to fight it, but soon she won’t be able to get herself out, nevermind all the workers.

“Karen, light them up,” Penny mutters as she dodges fallen pieces of scaffolding. The air grows dim around her. She can barely see, but her HUD lights up, blindly guiding Penny to the final workers left, two up on the top floor.

The structure creaks as she hurries across it. She doesn’t care how fast she’s going and the effects it might have, because Karen tells her the building is coming down in  _ Eight. Seven. _

Penny races across the beams.

_ Six. Five. _

The walls tremble around her.

_ Four. _

The workers come into her sight.

_ Three. _

She shoves them back.

_ Two. _

She fires a web.

_ One. _

⬪ ⬤ ⬪

Penny can’t lift her arms. There’s a weight,  _ multiple  _ weights, on them, pressing down, keeping her pinned in place as it tears into her skin. Every attempt to move her leg sends a flare of white hot pain through her body, and she has to bite down on her lip to keep from screaming.  _ Deep breaths _ , she reminds herself.  _ You’re okay. You’re okay. _

_ But where are you? _

“Karen,” she says, voice echoing eerily through the darkness around her. “Did everyone get out okay?”

“ _ All workers are clear of the structure. _ ”

Penny heaves a sigh of relief.  _ Thank goodness _ . Penny can’t move, can barely see, and has no idea how to escape this mess she finds herself in, but at least the civilians are safe.

“ _ Incoming call from Mr. Stark. _ ”

Penny lays her head back against a metal pipe as she sends the call through. “Hello?”

“Spider-Woman,” Dad’s voice echoes through the line, sounding relieved. “I’m watching you on the news. Everything okay?”

“Karen says I got everyone out safe.”

“Great job, kid. Why don’t you head on home? I was tense through the screen  _ watching  _ you. I can’t imagine how you’re feeling right now.”

Penny lets out a weak chuckle, scanning the darkness around her. There’s no way she’s getting out of this. “Um, can you come get me?”

“Oh, sure. What, are you on a rooftop, or something? Should I bring the suit?”

“I’m under the building.”

There’s silence on the other end of the line. Penny would’ve thought Tony had hung up, if not for the faint sounds of breathing. “Dad?”

“I’m sorry, come again?” he stutters.

“I’m under the building,” she repeats as her eyes scan the darkness around her.

“You’re downstairs? In the parking garage?” Tony attempts, voice rising a couple of octaves.

Penny huffs out a nervous laugh under her breath. “Yeah, um, turns out the building didn’t hold out as long as I thought.”

“I’m on my way. Are you hurt?”

“Nope,” Penny says, her voice a pitch too high.

“ _ Penny has sustained a fracture in her fibula, _ ” Karen interrupts. “ _ Immediate medical attention is- _ ”

“I’m fine!” Penny interrupts in a squeak.

“Fracture- what does that mean?” Tony stutters, and Penny hears the sounds of clanking metal in the background

“It’s nothing-” she tries to say, but Karen responds to her creator.

“ _ In common terms, Penny has sustained a broken ankl-” _

“I’m  _ fine,  _ Dad-”

“A broken ankle?” Tony questions, on the verge of hysteria. “Okay. Okay, broken ankle. We can deal with a broken ankle, just don’t-”

Penny shifts, trying to see if there’s any possibility of an escape before Tony reaches her, when pain floods up her leg and she freezes, blowing out short puffs of breath.

“Move it,” Tony finishes. “I was going to say, Don’t move it.”

“Noted,” Penny says with a weak chuckle.

“Karen,” Tony calls through the speaker. “Report on the structure.”

“ _ Penny is in a relatively safe position. She has air and access to the outside. For now, the structure is in no danger of a collapse. _ ”

“Hear that, Pen?” Tony says, sounding calmer than Penny is, calmer than she knows he truly feels. “You’re going to be fine.”

“Mhm,” Penny answers, scanning the space around her as she considers what Karen had said. Access to air, a building collapse - these are things she hadn’t even considered. Her breath unwillingly quickens. She’s safe, for  _ now. _ “You- you’re not going to hang up, right?” she asks shakily. The darkness feels like it’s closing in around her.

Tony’s voice is soft. “‘Course not, hon. I’m right here, I promise.” Penny swallows thickly, nodding, although she knows Tony can’t see her. “I’m going to get you out, okay? Just stay calm.”

Penny lets out a slow breath. “Thanks, Dad.”

“Anytime, sweetheart.”

⬪ ⬤ ⬪

Tony takes great care to shift the rubble in a way he knows it won’t collapse and helps Penny out, picking up the girl as she clutches to his chest.

“You’re okay,” Tony whispers as he lifts off the ground and begins to fly back to the tower. Penny just nods against his chestplate, the arc reactor glowing bright against her cheek. Her ankle gives a twinge of pain with even the slightest movement, the softest breeze, and she fights not to let it show, but Tony still mutters apologies until he gets her to the Med Bay and carefully sets her down on a gurney.

Dr. Ross does her assessment - a broken ankle, as Karen stated, along with a fracture in her shoulder and a bruised rib. Penny doesn’t mind it much; it comes with the job. Tony, however, appears to grow more panicked the more Dr. Ross speaks.

Penny gets a cast for her right ankle and her right shoulder, holding her arm in place, and a set of crutches with instructions to keep pressure off her ankle, but also to stretch every hour to keep her bruised rib from worsening. How she’s supposed to accomplish that, Penny has no idea, but she doesn’t have to think about it much when Tony pushes a wheelchair into her medical room to bring her upstairs.

“No,” Penny says immediately as Tony brings the wheelchair to a stop beside her bed. He leans on it, raising an eyebrow.

“You expect to hobble your way upstairs on crutches? How are you going to hold them if you can’t use your right arm, huh?”

“I’ll find a way,” Penny says, beginning to slide off the bed. Her chest pangs with every inhale, her shoulder protesting with each movement, and her ankle burns with white-hot pain when it touches down on the floor. She feels Tony’s eyes on her as he watches, unamused, but she continues anyway, reaching for the crutches with her left hand. They’re leaning against the wall to her right, so she has to twist to reach them-  _ ow _ . The pain in her ribs flares up with the slightest twitch, but she can fight through this. She’s  _ Spider-Woman. _ Tony’s watching her. He’s waiting for her to fail, but she won’t, even as her ankle twists and her arm throbs and her chest heaves, because she’s almost there, and her fingers are brushing against the metal, and-

The crutches go toppling to the floor.

Lovely.

“I can get them,” Penny says, beginning to lean forward. Tony catches her by the shoulders before she can cause any real damage, and she glares up at him. “I’m not getting in that chair.”

“Would you like to spend the next three days in this hospital bed?” Penny’s lips twist into a scowl as she gives in, putting her weight on Tony and allowing him to guide her up and into the chair.

“I hate this,” she mutters as Tony begins to wheel her from the room, her face growing red. “I hate this so much.”

“Yeah, well, maybe next time you won’t throw yourself under a collapsing building,” Tony says absentmindedly, and Penny finds the blush fading away. Yeah, she did that. She’s Spider-Woman, and she does dangerous things all the damn day. She saves people, and if this is all she has to deal with-

“Oh, geez,” Penny hears as Tony turns into the hallway, and her heart sinks into her shoes, the blush returning.  _ She knows that voice. _

Harley waits by the opposite wall, eyes wide, mouth twisted into a sympathetic grimace. “I saw the news,” he mutters as he steps forward. “I didn’t think-” Harley shakes his head, kneeling down beside the chair to get a closer look at Penny’s face, and Penny wants to snap his neck in half for the action. This entire situation is utterly humiliating.

“Anyway, you’re lucky my classes ended early today.”

Penny scoffs. “Yeah, that’s the word I’d use.” And then Harley touches a hand to her cheek, and Penny realizes, maybe she’s not lying.

“Are you okay?” he asks gently. For a moment Penny looks down to her casts and considers some kind of sarcastic comment, and then she looks into her boyfriend's eyes and realizes that he deserves better than that, having come all this way.

“Yeah,” she says, and Harley grins, beginning to lean forward.

Tony clears his throat loudly, and Harley straightens, shaking his head. “Seriously?” he asks with raised eyebrows.

Tony ignores Harley, beginning to push the chair forward, but the floor is uneven and something jostles it. When Harley curses a moment later, Penny realizes what.

“Did you just run over his foot?” she demands incredulously, trying to find a way to twist in her chair to glare at Tony that’ll bring her the least amount of pain. Nothing seems to be adequate enough, so she settles for facing forward with a death glare.

Tony hums. “I don’t know what you’re saying-”

“Oh, he  _ absolutely  _ did,” Harley growls, falling into step with the wheelchair, his arm on the armrest just inches from Penny’s wrapped-up elbow.

“And still, you’re here,” Tony mutters. Harley scoffs, and Penny grins as the three of them pile into the elevator and Tony reaches for the button to go up. His finger hovers over the keypad, and he shoots a glance toward Harley. “Oh, I’m sorry. How inconsiderate of me. I should bring you down to the lobby first so you can hop off and leave me to spend time with my daughter.”

Harley laughs under his breath, reaching around Tony to press the  _ up  _ button for him. “No way I’m leaving my girlfriend when she’s all tied up like this.” The elevator doors slide shut, and Harley kneels beside the wheelchair. Penny raises an eyebrow at him, a,  _ Please stop tormenting my Dad, _ but Harley just grins and nods to her cast. “How long ‘til this heals?”

“Three days,” Penny tells him, amused. Harley shifts his gaze up to Tony’s.

“Well then, I guess we’ll be seeing each other for the next 72 hours,  _ Sir. _ ” Penny chuckles, shaking her head fondly, as Harley gently taps her cast. “Now, how would you like me to sign this?”

The elevator lets out a  _ ding,  _ and Tony begins pushing the chair before the doors fully open. Harley hops back. “Oh, not this time, old man.”

“I think her Dad should be the first to sign her cast, don’t you?” Tony says as he pushes Penny into the penthouse.

“Well, it all depends on who reaches the Sharpies first,” Harley challenges. The wheelchair falls still, and Penny just  _ knows  _ her Dad is sizing her boyfriend up.

“Guys, don’t do this,” she pleas, but it falls on deaf ears as Harley cocks a brow. “Harley-” she reaches for his sleeve, but he’s already gone, charging across the floor in a hunt for markers. Tony follows, hot on Harley’s heels, and Penny gapes after them as they leave her alone, just in front of the elevator. Penny thinks to call after them, to make some kind of sarcastic comment- and then, she gets an idea.

If they want to leave the handicapped girl unsupervised, if they think she’ll just sit here, waiting for them to come back, they’re mistaken. They didn’t give her any thought before; now, she’ll give them something to worry about.

With a slight groan, Penny shoves herself up from the wheelchair and begins looking for a hiding place. If they want to leave her alone, she’ll make sure they don’t get to see her when they return. It’s just a prank, she thinks, and she’ll be sure to record the two of them panicking over the missing woman from her place behind the couch.


End file.
